


Wheresoever They Come, They Be at Home

by Allekha



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Cultural Differences, M/M, Miscommunication, Present Tense, Summer of mutual pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 07:06:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16488008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allekha/pseuds/Allekha
Summary: Victor is having a great time in Japan, eating new foods and getting to know Yuuri properly. Culture shock, what culture shock? (There's only the occasional bump along the way.)





	Wheresoever They Come, They Be at Home

Japan has been _wonderful_ so far. Victor's heard of things like 'culture shock', but he's never experienced it, and he doesn't think he's about to anytime soon. Occasionally, he gets a little homesick when he takes Makkachin to the beach, because he's taken her to the beach in St. Petersburg many times before - when he was happy, when he was upset, when it was warm or cold. Seeing her splash in the waves and chase the crying seagulls is such a familiar sight. But just a little homesick, for a few moments, and then he forgets it.  
  
The food here is always delicious, whether he's eating it in restaurants or at the hot spring. Mari once made him try this weird kind of soybeans, all gooey and stringy, but he'd disappointed her by liking it. The tea is different, but he likes it, too, the grassy green ones, and the sweet-bitter matcha Hiroko has made for him a couple of times, and the sweet milk tea from the vending machines, all of it.  
  
When Yuuri takes him on mini sightseeing adventures, the trains always come on time, and it's such a cliche, but everyone is so polite! The shopkeepers call out welcomes. The cashiers go through their rote words so smoothly as they hand back his receipt and bow (he still isn't sure if he's supposed to nod or bow back or just take his purchase). The fisherman on the bridge chats with him in very simple Japanese while Yuuri catches up to Victor's bike.  
  
The temples have nice paintings. The shrines are cute. Victor doesn't believe in any gods, but Yuuri teaches him how to do the prayer, and that's fun to do for the sake of it. He gets a little charm at one place to give to Yakov next time he sees him, for happiness, since he's always so grumpy. At another, he buys one for Yuuri and gives it to him because the shrine girl says it's for health. Yuuri's had good luck with his lack of injuries so far, but more can't hurt.  
  
Even the language barrier isn't that bad. Yuuri helps a lot, of course, and the Nishigooris know English, and so does Minako, who also has a bit of French and Russian. Mari speaks enough for basic conversations. For everyone else, well, Victor's gestured his way through a lot of foreign countries, including Japan on previous trips. And he's picking up Japanese already, because he's going to be here for a while, so he might as well try. Besides, Japanese is pretty. The sound of it is much prettier than English, maybe as lovely as French, but different. Yuuri is finally starting to help correct his pronunciation, too, though Victor has had to bug him a few times until he stopped being so shy about it.  
  
So everything is great! Yesterday, Victor even got to do the umbrella thing he's read about, because unlike Yuuri, he had checked the weather prediction. (It's always warm here! He doesn't yet trust his sense of what the temperature should be.) It was almost as romantic as it had sounded, Yuuri pressed against his side - if only Yuuri had wrapped their arms together, but Victor knows not to push too hard now - as they walked through the gentle rain. It was nice outside, too, not very chilly, the greenery out already, and they had slowly wandered back to Yuutopia. Like a scene from a movie.  
  
Today, the sun is out, and the Ice Castle is exactly the right temperature for an ice rink - not so warm that the ice gets mushy, not so cold that they never warm up. They have the ice to themselves for the moment, thanks to the odd hour, and they're using it to work on Yuuri's unreliable Salchow so he can start landing the quad in his programs. He says it's nerves that lead him to fail it in competition, and it's true that he does it okay in practice, but his form isn't helping him.  
  
Victor tries to explain how to align his body to take the jump off right, and Yuuri nods a few times and takes off. He does several jumps, but none of them show any signs of Victor's advice. They try again - Yuuri nods, and does the jump once more, but this time, his shoulders twist the wrong way and the jump comes out too small.

Yuuri makes a face. Victor tries to re-word what he's saying. It doesn't work. After a couple more rounds of back and forth, Yuuri looks tired, and Victor is struggling to channel Yakov's patience. Well. Yakov would be yelling by now, but he wouldn't give up on fixing it. Victor doesn't want to give up, but he does slump to the boards and go, "Yuuuuriii."  
  
"Sorry," says Yuuri, coming over to take a breather and have some water.  
  
"I guess your muscle memory is really strong," Victor says. That might not be a bad thing once they fix his jump, they just have to... fix his jump. Somehow. Maybe he should have wheedled some advice out of Yakov during the ride to the airport, though it would've been difficult to get a single word in around Yakov's ranting about how irresponsible he was being. Maybe they just have to keep at it. Try video and demonstrations and—  
  
"Um," says Yuuri. "It's not that. Actually, I'm not sure I know exactly what you're trying to get me to do."  
  
Victor stares at him. "You looked like you understood - you kept nodding your heard and saying you did!"  
  
"Oh, um," Yuuri says again. "Sorry, it's a kind of Japanese habit. It confused Celestino a couple of times, too, so I try not to do it so much. It's to show we're listening, I think." He replaces his water bottle on the boards. "I thought if I kept trying to do what you said, I'd understand what you were saying, but it didn't work."  
  
"It didn't," Victor sighs. So all the nodding and the 'okay's were - it does sound like a nice concept. Suddenly he wonders if this has happened before, only Yuuri realized what they were doing, so Victor never noticed. Oh, well. Now that he thinks about it, he can remember Yakov checking in about instructions and corrections, too. Maybe he should go rewatch some old documentaries about their training to see if there's anything else he's forgetting about coaching.  
  
"Can we try it again?"  
  
"Of course!" Enough sighing over this hiccup. He has a job to do! He has to make Yuuri into a champion! He straightens up. "Let's try recording you doing a few of them and see if it helps to look at it together. Okay?"  
  
Yuuri nods again, a determined look in his eyes, despite how long they've been working on this already. Victor loves that expression. That's what's going to make him master this quad Salchow; that's what's going to get him onto the top of the podium this year, with a little help from Victor.

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: culture clash


End file.
